Managing User Involvement in Service Innovation

Although user involvement is frequently practiced in companies, the research findings regarding its benefits for innovation are contradictory. This article experimentally assesses the contributions made by users in comparison with professional service developers and examines how the implementation of user involvement affects the outcome. During periods of 12 days, three different groups were assigned the task of generating ideas for end user telecom services. One group consisted of professional de signers, whereas the other two consisted of ordinary users. The users in one of the groups coped with idea creation by themselves, whereas the other group consulted a service design expert at two controlled meetings who provided feedback regarding technical feasibility. Involving users makes the ideas more original, holding a higher perceived user value, but the users’ideas are less producible on aver-age. The outcome was also affected by how user involvement was implemented. Scholarly and managerial implications conclude the article.

[1]  S. Siegel,et al.  Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences , 2022, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[2]  E. von Hippel,et al.  Sources of Innovation , 2016 .

[3]  Marketing—A Success Factor in Industrial Innovation , 1976 .

[4]  Eric A. von Hippel.  Has a Customer Already Developed Your Next Product? , 1978, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[5]  E. Hippel.  Has a Customer Already Developed Your Next Product , 1978 .

[6]  D. Hinkle,et al.  Applied statistics for the behavioral sciences , 1979 .

[7]  Robert G. Cooper,et al.  The misuse of marketing: An American tragedy , 1981 .

[8]  C. Carver,et al.  Optimism, coping, and health: assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. , 2009, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[9]  E. Hippel,et al.  Lead users: a source of novel product concepts , 1986 .

[10]  Glen L. Urban,et al.  Lead User Analyses for the Development of New Industrial Products , 1988 .

[11]  John C. Narver,et al.  The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability , 1990 .

[12]  Michael R. Bowers,et al.  Developing New Services: Improving the Process Makes it Better , 1989 .

[13]  Eugene M. Johnson,et al.  A Proposed Model for New Service Development , 1989 .

[14]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  Delivering quality service : balancing customer perceptions and expectations , 1990 .

[15]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market Orientation: The Construct, Research Propositions, and Managerial Implications , 1990 .

[16]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[17]  J. Farley,et al.  Corporate Culture, Customer Orientation, and Innovativeness in Japanese Firms: A Quadrad Analysis , 1993 .

[18]  William L. Anderson,et al.  Engineering practice and codevelopment of codevelopment of product prototypes , 1993, CACM.

[19]  William L. Anderson,et al.  Engineering practice and codevelopment of product prototypes , 1993 .

[20]  BPE : Bedömning av personliga egenskaper , 1994 .

[21]  G. Barczak.  New product strategy, structure, process, and performance in the telecommunications industry , 1995 .

[22]  D. A. Horne,et al.  Level of success inputs for service innovations in the same firm , 1995 .

[23]  Chris Storey,et al.  Determinants of new product performance: A study in the financial services sector , 1996 .

[24]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  CUSTOMER POWER, STRATEGIC INVESTMENT, AND THE FAILURE OF LEADING FIRMS , 1996 .

[25]  P. A. Dabholkar.  Consumer evaluations of new technology-based self-service options: An investigation of alternative models of service quality , 1996 .

[26]  K. Atuahene–Gima,et al.  Market Orientation and Innovation , 1996 .

[27]  J. Rayport,et al.  Spark innovation through empathic design. , 1997, Harvard business review.

[28]  Michael D. Johnson.  Customer Orientation and Market Action , 1997 .

[29]  Clayton M. Christensen.  The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail , 2013 .

[30]  M. Iansiti,et al.  Developing products on Internet time. , 1997, Harvard business review.

[31]  B. Edvardsson.  Quality in new service development: Key concepts and a frame of reference , 1997 .

[32]  S. R. Rosenthal,et al.  Integrating the Fuzzy Front End of New Product Development , 1997 .

[33]  Robert W. Veryzer.  Key factors affecting customer evaluation of discontinuous new products , 1998 .

[34]  Pankaj Kohli,et al.  Idea Generation: Who Has The Most Profitable Ideas , 1998 .

[35]  A. Johne,et al.  New service development: a review of the literature and annotated bibliography , 1998 .

[36]  W. Lyddon.  Creativity in Context: Update to "The Social Psychology of Creativity" , 1998 .

[37]  Robert W. Veryzer.  Discontinuous innovation and the new product development process , 1998 .

[38]  Robert W. Veryzer.  Discontinuous innovation and the new product development process , 1998 .

[39]  J. Mullins,et al.  New Product Development in Rapidly Changing Markets: An Exploratory Study , 1998 .

[40]  Bjørn W. Hennestad.  Infusing the organisation with customer knowledge , 1999 .

[41]  Chris Storey,et al.  New service development: initiation strategies , 2000 .

[42]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  Technology Readiness Index (Tri) , 2000 .

[43]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters , 2000 .

[44]  R. B. Chase,et al.  A Critical Evaluation of the New Service Development Process: Integrating Service Innovation and Service Design , 2000 .

[45]  Pamela D. Morrison,et al.  Determinants of User Innovation and Innovation Sharing in a Local Market , 2000 .

[46]  Chris Storey,et al.  New service development: initiation strategies , 2000 .

[47]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Technology infusion in service encounters , 2000 .

[48]  Robert G. Cooper,et al.  Winning at new products : accelerating the process from idea to launch , 2001 .

[49]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  The Journal of Product Innovation Management 18 (2001) 247–257 PERSPECTIVE: User toolkits for innovation , 2022 .

[50]  Peter R. Magnusson,et al.  Users as a Hidden Resource for Creativity: Findings from an Experimental Study on User Involvement , 2002 .

[51]  Anthony W. Ulwick.  Turn customer input into innovation. , 2002, Harvard business review.

[52]  I. Alam.  An exploratory investigation of user involvement in new service development , 2002 .

[53]  S. Hart,et al.  Industrial companies' evaluation criteria in new product development gates , 2003 .